Gauteng

Geoffrey Klass, extraordinary bookseller of Johannesburg, passed away on 27th February after a short illness. His death was unexpected.

Geoff and his brother Jonathan founded Collectors Treasury. This was truly a treasure house of books and antiques. Over five decades, the shop rapidly became a Johannesburg institution - an important fixture in our city’s landscape. Geoff knew everyone of importance in the city. He had an intimate and lived history of our strange mining city. The  city  shaped his career and being a Johannesburg man defined him. Geoff could have made a life in books in London or New York.

Geoff and Jonathan Klass (The Heritage Portal)

Geoff was born in 1948 to Dr Max Klass, a psychiatrist, and his wife Maisie (nee Goldberg) in Johannesburg. Geoff’s grandparents, Solomon and Zelda Klass were immigrants to South Africa from Lithuania. The grandparents sold everything from ginger beer to baby clothes and made a decent life for their five children. Their ambition was to educate their children. Solomon bought property and acquired the Johannesburg Ritz Hotel and later owned a residential Hotel in Berea. For a time he was the owner of the Radium Beer Hall. The family became hotel keepers.

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In early February Johannesburg celebrated the Chinese New Year on Derrick avenue Cyrildene. The gods were kind as there was no rain. Everyone enjoyed the warm evening under clear dark skies.

The festivities began early as people arrived at Chinese entrance portals marking China Town from 4pm but the show only got underway as the light faded.

Entrance to Chinatown on Derrick Avenue (Kathy Munro)

Dignatries including the retinue of China’s ambassador, Mr Jiang Zaidong as well as local government officials were welcomed with due ceremony and many speeches. We were entertained with a variety show of dance displays, young, energetic, vibey and accompanied by resounding drum rolls. My favourite was a hauntingly lyrical group from Manchuria. Another treat was traditional Chinese singing and dance. Local traditional dancers in fine leopard pelts strutted the stage.

Performers at Chinese New Year 2025 (Kathy Munro)

It was a fantastic joyous celebration of cultural inclusiveness and diversity. Thousands of people gathered and had fun on Derrick Avenue. Many Chinese participants wore traditional costumes. Bags of sweets were thrown from the moving float.

Chinese New Year festivities included...

The Jolly Roger is a famous pub on 4th Street in Parkhurst, Johannesburg. I’m sure many readers have enjoyed its beer and pizza but very few people know the origin story of this local institution.

The Jolly Roger was co-founded by Roger Cohen, a larger-than-life rugby player turned entrepreneur. In 1994, shortly after the transition to democracy (and perhaps with an eye on the 1995 Rugby World Cup), Cohen established the Jolly Roger alongside partner Piet van Bliek. Two years later, he sold the pub to LeBrun Rossouw who, according to a chat with a local staff member, still owns it today.

Jolly Roger from above (Google Maps)

The pub's name was a witty play on both Cohen's name and his deep connection to Pirates Rugby Club in nearby Greenside. Established in 1888, Pirates is one of Johannesburg's oldest clubs and known for its skull and crossbones emblem - the same design found on the classic Jolly Roger pirate flag. While Pirates has several pubs of its own, many members pop down the road to enjoy a drink or two at the Jolly.

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In a move that combines historical significance with urban renewal, the Office of the Mayor of Johannesburg has committed to using the old Pass Office at 80 Albert Street as its new administrative headquarters.

The building has a complex history that encapsulates Johannesburg's most painful periods of racial oppression and discrimination. During the 1950s and 60s, this was the head office of the Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department. Officials in the department had the job of implementing the policy of separate development. They wielded bureaucratic power over virtually every aspect of Black peoples' lives - from employment and housing to sport and entertainment. The most well known function of the department was managing the notorious pass system in the city.

Blue plaque (The Heritage Portal)

The building's recent history is equally tragic. In a devastating incident that made headlines around the world in 2023, 77 people lost their lives in a fire, highlighting critical urban challenges. This catastrophe exposed systemic failures: buildings being illegally occupied, administrative neglect, and a lack of accountability from city officials. It also highlighted an ongoing trend in Johannesburg’s history - rapid urbanisation placing demands on a city council with limited resources and capacity.

The decision to move the Mayor’s Office to this heritage building is a powerful gesture to...

In a moving speech delivered on November 16, 2024, Eric Itzkin, Deputy Director of Immovable Heritage for the City of Johannesburg, shared the remarkable story of the resurrected dragon pillar in Johannesburg's First Chinatown.

“It always seems impossible until it is done” Nelson Mandela.  

Nowhere do those inspiring words from Mandela ring more true than in the remarkable case of the resurrection of the dragon pillar in Johannesburg’s First Chinatown. After having been smashed to pieces, few expected that the dragon would be reconstructed to rise majestically before our eyes.

In 2011, a pair of dragon pillars carved from granite were erected at the entrance of Johannesburg’s first Chinatown on Commissioner Street in Ferreirastown. The two carved granite columns were imported from China as part of a regeneration project that was implemented by the City with support by the local Chinese community.

Tragedy struck in 2020 when one of the columns was knocked down by a runaway Rea Vaya bus. The pillar suffered devastating damage, with the head of the dragon decapitated but thankfully still in one piece which was kept safely (see main image).

How then to restore the dignity and integrity of the dragon which had all but been destroyed?

We considered importing a replacement sculpture from China, but costs would have been sky-high, especially considering the cost of freighting.

Thoughts then turned to the idea of working with what was left, to carefully assemble the fallen granite pieces, reconstruct, restore and re-erect the dragon pillar at...

Even in the age of imperial chicanery, the audacity of the Jameson Raid was astounding. Imagine, two sizeable groups of well-armed mounted men, departing from Pitsane in present-day Botswana and Mafeking (now Mahikeng), respectively, at sunset on 29 December 1895, for a three-day canter to Johannesburg to overthrow Kruger’s government and proclaim it a colony of the British Empire.

Perhaps the closest modern counterpart is the so-called ‘Wonga Coup’ of 2004, to replace the President of Equatorial Guinea with an exiled opposition leader in return for preferential oil rights to corporations affiliated with those involved in the coup.

Ever since that death-or-glory ride, the fate of several of those men of the Mashonaland Mounted and the Bechuanaland Border Police units, who comprised the Jameson Raiders, have been lost in the fog of history and war. This article investigates where those bold policemen who were killed in clashes with the Boer burghers were buried.

By the mid 1890’s it was obvious that in the area immediately south of Johannesburg the world’s richest and greatest gold reefs ever, have been discovered. To the chagrin of Cecil John Rhodes, it also became clear that the extensive gold reefs he and other investors had hoped to find north of the Limpopo River, did not exist.

To Rhodes and other like-minded Randlords, it was intolerable that an ignorant and corrupt Boer government should rule the country where all this immense underground wealth existed. Gradually plans were laid  to seize, if not the whole of the...

In 1905, two nearly identical memorials were erected to commemorate the Scottish Horse Regiment, a unit that served with distinction during the South African War (Anglo-Boer War). These monuments, located on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and atop Caledonia Koppie in Johannesburg, South Africa, honour the officers and men who lost their lives during the war.

Scottish Horse Memorials in Edinburgh (left) and Johannesburg (right)

Plaque on the Edinburgh memorial (The Heritage Portal)

The Scottish Horse was established in late 1900 when Lord Kitchener asked the Marquess of Tullibardine to raise a regiment of Scotsmen in South Africa. The regiment grew quickly, expanding into two regiments, and saw active service in the Western Transvaal. After the war ended in 1902, the regiments were disbanded at Edinburgh Castle following the repatriation of Australian volunteers and discharge of South African members.

Edinburgh Castle from below (The Heritage Portal)...

To anyone familiar with the history of Richmond in the Northern Cape, the surnames Wagner and Hoffa are of great interest. In 1876, a 33-year-old storekeeper/accountant, John Martin Wagner married Bertha Hoffa, aged 20 years, in Richmond, the ceremony being performed by the Resident Magistrate. One of the witnesses to the marriage was Julius G Mosenthal. I wonder whether this is the same Julius who became a member of the Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in London?

The Wagners had 3 children who did well for themselves; clearly well educated. The eldest son, John, became a Solicitor; the middle child married a Civil Servant and the third child, born in Richmond in 1885, the subject of this biography, was Percy Albert, who became an eminent Consulting Geologist in South Africa.

But before we get to Percy, it is of interest to look at the family of Bertha. She was the firstborn child of the local doctor in Richmond, Moritz Hoffa, and was born in that little town/village in about 1856. She had 5 siblings and 1 of those achieved great heights in the world of science. This was Dr Albert Hoffa, born in Richmond in March 1859.  He trained as a surgeon, an orthopaedist and a physiotherapist. He is described as the founder of modern orthopaedics. It was he who introduced an operation for congenital hip dislocation in 1890.

When Percy was 17 years old, his father, John Martin Wagner, died on a mail...

The Ditsong National Museum of Military History provides a home for the memory and study of military history. It does so by affording visitors a rare opportunity to view the actual artefacts of an often-turbulent past. The Museum began its existence in 1942 when a few far-sighted individuals grasped the need to collect material evidence of our nation’s contribution to world history. After the First World War (1914 - 1918), the idea that a museum could serve as a war memorial led to the establishment of the Imperial War Museum in London. Sadly, no similar effort was made in South Africa, and much of the war material collected during that period was dispersed. This oversight was not to be repeated during the Second World War (1939 - 1945). In 1940, Capt J Agar-Hamilton was appointed official historian to the Union Defence Forces. He formed a Historical Research Committee to ensure the preservation of documents and materials of military interest, laying a foundation for the establishment of the Museum.

Ditsong National Museum of Military History (Google Maps)

The South African National War Museum was opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947.  At the opening ceremony, Smuts stated the following:

We are gathered here today to open what may not unfairly be looked upon as...

The copper domed Wits Planetarium with its slender columned portico is a recognisable and well-known landmark on Yale Road on the East Campus of the University of the Witwatersrand. The Planetarium was completed in 1960 and was notable for its extraordinary Zeiss planetarium projector.

For over 60 years, the Planetarium, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, has had a significant impact on the University and the broader community, with many thousands of visitors having experienced the projected celestial wonders. A high-profile Centenary project for Wits was to transform the Planetarium, into a fully interactive digital system.

The newly named Wits Anglo American Digital Dome project aims to create a visualization laboratory within this iconic landmark. This will broaden its role well beyond astronomy, re-imagine its potential on a 21st Century campus, and enable unparalleled community engagement.

Kate Otten Architects (KOA) were appointed by the University of the Witwatersrand in 2021 as the architects for the adaptive re-use of the Planetarium. Noting the heritage importance and sensitivity of this building KOA appointed William Martinson as their specialist Heritage Architect.
 

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